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The Berlin Group and the Philosophy of Logical Empiricism pp 33–39Cite as

The Berlin Group and the USA: A Narrative of Personal Interactions

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Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science ((BSPS,volume 273))

Abstract

The article describes the contacts and collaborations between the author, Paul Oppenheim, C. G. Hempel, and Olaf Helmer in the 1940s and 1950s, particularly in the context of interactions at the RAND Corporation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “The Methodology of the Inexact Science.” initially circulated as a RAND paper in the mid 1950s, it was subsequently published as Helmer and Rescher (1959).

  2. 2.

    The method drew inspiration from the study by Kaplan et al. (1950). It was initially explained in Helmer and Rescher (1959) (This article reprints an internal Rand Corporation paper of 1958, and was the earliest discussion on Delphi published in the open literature.)

  3. 3.

    A comprehensive bibliography of Delphi-relevant writings is given in Linstone and Turoff (op. cit.), 575–605. Of the six items published prior to 1963 specifically dealing with Delphi, I am the author or co-author of three—that is, half of them. For further references see p. 299 ff. of Cooke (1991) (Chapter 11, entitled “Combining Expert Opinion” is particularly relevant). Good discussions of Delphi are also found in Martino (1972).

  4. 4.

    The Center members who had some training under Hempel include: John Earman, Adolf Grünbaum, Gerald Massey, and Nicholas Rescher. Earman apart, each of us served as Center director for a period of years.

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Nicholas Rescher

Authors
  1. Nicholas Rescher
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Correspondence to Nicholas Rescher .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Paderborn, Warburger Straße 100, Paderborn, 33098, Germany

    Nikolay Milkov

  2. Fak. Kulturwissenschaften, Abt. Philosophie, Universität Paderborn, Warburger Str. 100, Paderborn, 33098, Germany

    Volker Peckhaus

Appendix

Appendix

figure 1

Olaf Helmer with Dorothy and Nicholas Rescher at the University of Pittsburgh, 1963

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Rescher, N. (2013). The Berlin Group and the USA: A Narrative of Personal Interactions. In: Milkov, N., Peckhaus, V. (eds) The Berlin Group and the Philosophy of Logical Empiricism. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 273. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5485-0_2

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